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Jam out to The Music of League of Legends

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:00:00 EST

Today, this is our jam. The Music of League of Legends - Volume 1 collects 15 new and classic songs from League of Legends, available to download for free or for listening on YouTube.

"The amount of blood, sweat, and tears that went into this project makes me so fucking grateful to be surrounded by such talented nerds," Riot Associate Brand Manager Tyler Eltringham said on Facebook. "This is the music of League."

Show your earholes some love today and give Music of League a listen.

Jam out to The Music of League of Legends originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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League of Legends Amumu music video is a tear-jerker

Jessica Conditt — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 21:00:00 EST

Amumu is the saddest of all League of Legends champions - as he wanders around Summoner's Rift, he says things like, "Come play with me," "Let me give you a hug" and "Where are we going?" with the most broken, depressing inflection. See, Amumu is cursed with eternal sadness and an inability to make friends, as Riot's new music video, "The Curse of the Sad Mummy," demonstrates with beautiful, terrible clarity.

Ugh. You can sit with us, Amumu! See the video and Amumu's creative spotlight on the official League of Legends site.

[Image: Riot]

League of Legends Amumu music video is a tear-jerker originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 26 Jan 2015 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Korean League of Legends shoutcasters are too much fun

Jessica Conditt — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 19:00:00 EST

Riot's shoutcasters - the hosts, analysts and interviewers on the ground during League of Legends tournaments - are professional, friendly and informative across the board, but there's something special about the Korean casters. Something energetic, frenzied and, most importantly, so much fun. YouTube user BaegMon collected a few stand-out moments from Korean shoutcasters during groups A and B in the 2014 League of Legends Worlds tournament earlier in September.

The 2014 League of Legends World Championship is heading into its Knockout Stage, slated to start on October 3. The Finals take place on October 19. See who's in, who's out, and the tournament schedule at lolesports.

[Image: Riot]

Korean League of Legends shoutcasters are too much fun originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 29 Sep 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Play League of Legends in college, win scholarship money

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:00:00 EST

The League of Legends North American Collegiate Championship returns for the 2014 - 2015 season with a larger competition layout and new region splits. Last year, 540 teams competed from 300 universities across the US and Canada.

"This year, the competition's even bigger," Riot says. "The season now spans the entire academic year and we've split North America into four competitive regions: North, South, East and West. We're also making it easier for new players and teams to compete by collaborating with four community partners with a solid history of running League tournaments."

The Qualifiers kick off on October 17 and registration for both the Ivy League of Legends and Collegiate Star League tracks are open from now through October 16. Two additional, shorter Qualifier rounds hosted by TeSPA and WellPlayed Productions take place in early 2015. Each Qualifier track crowns one winning team per region, for a total of 16 groups in the playoffs. The playoffs should be held around April or May 2015, Riot says, and the North American Championship will take place in Los Angeles, California, later in 2015.

The top four teams win scholarship money: $30,000 per team member for first place, $15,000 each for second, and $7,500 each for third and fourth. See the full registration schedule and rules in the NACC FAQ, and check out your school's clubs here. Good luck, Summoners of academia!

[Image: Riot]

Play League of Legends in college, win scholarship money originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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League of Legends boasts 27 million daily players

Danny Cowan — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 13:30:00 EST

Riot Games reports that its League of Legends userbase has skyrocketed to 27 million players daily, more than doubling the 12 million daily players it reported in 2012.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Riot Games additionally confirmed that up to 7.5 million users are playing League of Legends at the same time during peak hours, up from a high of 5 million concurrent users reported in March of 2013. League of Legends earned over $624 million in microtransaction revenue throughout 2013.

League of Legends enjoys continued popularity via streaming services like Twitch, and its widespread popularity led international players to be classified as professional athletes by the US government.

League of Legends boasts 27 million daily players originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Game Dev Tycoon, Bleed, Riot head up batch of six at Steam Greenlight

Danny Cowan — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:00:00 EST

Steam revealed today that Game Dev Tycoon, Bleed and other standout titles are featured in the latest batch of games to earn community approval and platform distribution rights through Steam Greenlight.

Green Heart Games' simulation title Game Dev Tycoon earned a devoted following upon its release last month for its clever in-game approach to anti-piracy protection. Bootdisk Revolution's Bleed, a one-man effort that premiered for Windows and the Xbox Live Indie Games service late last year, combines frantically paced platforming with time-bending, quadruple-jumping gameplay mechanics.

Other games to pass through the latest round of Greenlight approvals include ConcernedApe's open-ended RPG Stardew Valley, The Leonard's "playable documentary" Riot, AustinHand's survival horror title The Legend, and Aterdux Entertainment's Kickstarted strategy-RPG Legends of Eisenwald.

Game Dev Tycoon, Bleed, Riot head up batch of six at Steam Greenlight originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 16 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Riot in the streets, at a desk, in your hand: An indie documentary game

Jessica Conditt — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EST

"Riots are powerful. They are moments in which lots of different people blend into a unique and cohesive mass to fight for their freedom. It is something that you cannot pursue for yourself, but only for a greater good. How can that not be incredibly emotive?"

Designer Mattia Traverso approaches rioting as an intense, human experience, from both sides of the kevlar: Rioters take to the streets for freedom and glory, while the authorities fight back in an equally fervid attempt to retain order. Riots are masses of thousands of stories about people, and Riot is a game about humanity.

Traverso, creator Leonard Menchiari and programmer Ugur Ister's Riot has raised almost triple its $10,000 funding goal on Indiegogo, and it still has 10 days to pull in more money. Money that the Italian trio will use to travel the globe, seeking out and documenting riots in Italy, Greece, Egypt, Russia and other countries, interviewing rioters and law enforcement officers, gathering videos, photos and eyewitness accounts - then throwing all of that into the game.

"Phisically visiting these places and joining the live riots is fundamental," Traverso tells me. "One cannot describe something he does not know, and that is something that the 'serious' movie industry knows very well: You need research. How could we even claim to describe such an important topic without having lived it multiple times or having talked with the rioters or the police?"

Continue reading Riot in the streets, at a desk, in your hand: An indie documentary game

Riot in the streets, at a desk, in your hand: An indie documentary game originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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League of Legends back on Mac

Alexander Sliwinski — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:48:00 EST

League of Legends, which currently boasts 32 million active players according to developer Riot Games, released its Mac client into open beta a short time ago.

"Going native on Mac has been a big goal for us, and we're really excited to offer the same experience across both platforms," Riot noted in its announcement. "The Mac client does everything that the PC client does, meaning you'll get all future features, bug fixes and new content on the same schedule as PC players, but on your native OS."

PC and Mac players will be able to play together. Riot previously tested a Mac client, but shut that down in 2011. Mac users interested can pick up the game client right here.

Update: Fixed cross-platform details.

League of Legends back on Mac originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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League of Legends developer wins another porn domain case

Mike Schramm — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:00:00 EST

Riot Games has finished up another legal dispute regarding a website domain name related to its popular League of Legends title. LeagueofLegends.co was previously awarded to the company by the World Intellectual Property Organization from the clutches of a domain squatter, and now LeagueofLegendsPorn.com has been reclaimed by Riot for its own use. The case actually closed in late September, but the ruling came online earlier this week.

Those looking for some racy pics of Miss Fortune or Akali getting it on, however, will be disappointed: The site never actually hosted any adult material, and now that Riot owns it, probably never will. But Riot is slowly securing its various domain name holdings online, making it easier for the company to connect players up to big company events like the recent World Championships in LA.

League of Legends developer wins another porn domain case originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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League of Legends surpasses 15M registered players, 1.4M play daily

Alexander Sliwinski — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:18:00 EST

Riot Games announced today that League of Legends has over 15 million registered players, with 3.6 million monthly active users and over 1.4 million playing daily. The company also revealed its peak concurrency (number of those LoLing at the same time) as over half a million players. This is the first time the company has publicly shared its user numbers since launching in October 2009.

The League of Legends Season One Championship drew in over 1.69 million online viewers, with 210,000 checking in for the final match. Riot Games plans to expand LoL in 2011 to Southeast Asia and China, home of its parent company, Tencent. Riot also made headlines recently with the human acquisition of Mass Effect 2 lead gameplay designer Christina Norman, who has taken a lead designer role.

Check out more coverage of today's announcement in our interview with Riot Games' CEO and co-founder, Brandon Beck.

Continue reading League of Legends surpasses 15M registered players, 1.4M play daily

League of Legends surpasses 15M registered players, 1.4M play daily originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reports: Chinese online giant Tencent acquires majority stake in Riot Games

Mike Schramm — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:30:00 EST

China's biggest Internet company, Tencent, has reportedly acquired a majority stake in Los Angeles-based Riot Games for the sum of $350 million. Tencent has already acquired a number of other Western properties, including Crytek's free-to-play FPS and Take-Two's NBA 2K Online, and also runs the QQ messaging service, boasting over 600 million-plus users. Riot makes League of Legends, the free-to-play DotA-style multiplayer title, and has said it will stay in Los Angeles and continue to "aggressively" hire through 2011.

This deal likely won't affect the day-to-day of League of Legends (or any other titles Riot has under development), but given Tencent's contacts and assets in China, Riot will likely get a lot of help in spreading its games to players overseas. The transaction is still subject to regulatory measures, but is expected to close within 30 days.

Reports: Chinese online giant Tencent acquires majority stake in Riot Games originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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